Aggro
Managing aggro is one of the most important aspects of grouping because it determines how much damage the group receives and where the damage ends up. For a long time it was thought that we as players would never be able get a sound understanding of how aggro works because it was assumed that it is based on complicated AI algorithms which can't reasonably be deduced from the little information Blizzard has made available to us. Thanks to the work of some dedicated individuals, however, we now know that this is not the case. Today we have a quite thorough theory on aggro which explains most of the factors involved in a mob's target selection. These ideas and findings are outlined in this article. Threat Several abilities and effects increase a character's threat level against a mob. Note that the effective amount of threat generated can be modified by talents and spells. See the Threat Tables below for details. Basic NPC attacks do not modify threat; a character being attacked is not gaining or losing threat from it. However, some NPCs have special moves that affect threat. Threat measurements are normalized so that 1 point of damage generates 1 point of threat. Healing threat is divided amongst all NPCs that are aware of the character. Example: Player 1 is involved in combat with 5 mobs. Player 2 (priest) casts a 1000 heal without threat reduction talents on Player 1. A 1000 heal generates 500 threat, however that 500 threat is split amongst the 5 mobs. Each of the 5 mobs now has 100 threat towards Player 2. Bonus threat is also split for multi-target abilities and buffs. For buffs, the bonus threat is divided amongst all NPCs that are aware of the character (same as healing threat). For debuffs and attacks, the bonus threat is divided amongst the affected targets. Example: a Warrior's Battle Shout buff generates a set amount of threat, that is divided amongst all the NPCs that have the Warrior on their aggro tables. This change was made with v2.0.1, to prevent AE tanking becoming trivial through repeatedly using shouts. If a power gain (Rage/Mana increase) shows up in the combat log, the effect usually counts as a buff with bonus threat attached to the event. There are no Energy-increasing effects that appear to cause bonus threat. Normal power regen does not generate threat. Normal health regen also does not generate threat. Threat Tables per Class Threat auras persist, and affect the threat of abilities that are used while the auras are active. Threat Modifying Abilities directly change the level of threat. For abilities that generate both damage threat and bonus threat, only the bonus is shown. * 1 → The figures for these maneuvers do not include Threat generated by their damage. * 2 → Priest - Fade is a temporary buff. When it expires, its threat level reduction is revoked once a threat generating action is performed. Stacked Threat Auras Threat Auras stack in a multiplicative fashion. For example: You are a warrior in Berserker Stance (.8x threat generated) and are effected by Blessing of Salvation (.7x threat generated) Your total threat reduction would be: 0.8*0.7=0.56 or 56% of threat generated - a total of 44% threat reduction. The only known exceptions to the general multiplicative behavior are the Improved Righteous Fury and Feral Instinct talents. Feral Instinct is additive with Bear Form's modifier for a 1.45x total bonus (instead of 1.495x if multiplied). The increase from Improved Righteous Fury is multiplied only with the bonus of Righteous Fury (.6x), rather than the full multiplier (1.6x). Threat Modifying Items Known bugs Threat reduction abilities are also affected by threat reducing effects. Example: Rogues have -29 % threat as an inate ability which is always active. Feint reduces threat by -800. However. the -29% affects feint, which causes it to remove only 568 threat, instead of the advertised ammount. Additional notes * Pulling (being the first who a mob attacks) does not generate any threat in itself, but other players need to beat your threat (even if 0) by 10% to get aggro from the mob. * Overhealing doesn't generate any threat, only actual health restored does. * Threat doesn't decay (passively degenerate over time) unless a specific encounter is designed that way. * A character's threat level is reset if the character dies or moves far away from the mob of combat. * A character's threat level cannot be negative. * The hunter's Feign Death and the rogue's Vanish resets the player's threat level on all mobs which don't resist it. Aggro By aggro we understand the condition of a particular mob attacking a particular character. The basic behaviour of aggro is controlled by the rules outlined below. Obviously, some mobs will have secondary attacks which have different targeting procedures. Pulling The following conditions will cause a mob to attack a character if it isn't already attacking someone else: # Using certain abilities on the mob (including attacking it), or # Moving inside the aggro radius of the mob Drawing Aggro The following conditions will cause a mob to attack a character if it is already attacking someone else: # Taunting the mob, or # Exceeding the threat level of the mob's current target by 10% within melee range of the mob, or # Exceeding the threat level of the mob's current target by 30% outside melee range of the mob, or # The player with aggro leaves the leash range of the mob, leaves the instance, successfully uses an ability to leave combat (such as feign death), or dies, or # If certain abilities impair the access of the mob to its higher threat-ranked targets (e.g. root spells), the mob will attack the highest threat-ranked target in its ability range (usually visible for melee mobs or silenced casters, which have a combat range of 5 yards) # If certain abilities apply a debuff to a character that cause the mob to consider the player an invalid target. Usually these debuffs have a chance (or certainty) to break on damage, but there are some that don't but still cause the mob to consider the character an invalid target. Examples include Polymorph, Gouge, Fear, Conflagration, etc. These aggro reduction effects are temporary in most situations (exceptions exist). When the ability wears off, previous aggro levels are restored after a player performs any aggro-generating move. Securing Aggro Activity commonly performed by tanks. This is where other classes hold back DPS and overhealing until the tank has a certain margin in Threat build upon one or more Mobs. Frequently a tank would perform this by: * Taunting the target (to set his threat to the same as the person currenly holding Aggro) * Activate Bloodrage * Spam Sunder Armor / Heroic Strike / etc Taunting The following skills are taunting abilities: * A Warrior's Taunt * A Warrior's Mocking Blow * A Warrior's Challenging Shout * A Druid's Bear-Form Growl (same as Taunt) * A Druid's Bear-Form Challenging Roar (same as Challenging Shout) * A Paladin's Righteous Defense (in 2.0.1) * A Shaman's Stoneclaw Totem * A Shaman's Earth Elemental Totem Note, the Growl of a Hunter's pet and Torment ability of a Warlock's Voidwalker are not actual taunting abilities; they merely cause a substantial amount of Threat. When warrior Taunt, druid Growl, or paladin Righteous Defense is used, three things happen: # A short-lived debuff is applied to the mob, which forces it to attack the taunting character. # The Threat level of the character who used the taunting ability is immediately raised to be equal to the Threat level of whoever currently has aggro, if the taunting character's Threat is lower. # The taunting character gains aggro. (This feature was added to taunting abilities soon after Burning Crusade came out.) This only applies to Taunt, Growl, and Righteous Defense. Mocking Blow, Challenging Shout and Challenging Roar do force mobs to attack you (#1), but do not match threat or transfer aggro. Mocking Blow generates a pre-defined amount of threat; Challenging Shout and Challenging Roar do not generate any threat at all! Further complications Healing a tank who holds multiple mobs When a tank hold multiple mobs, the threat of a heal on the tank will be split between all the mobs. The exact formula is not yet known, but it is more than the Threat/number of mobs. So if a tank holds 5 mobs and receives a heal, the threat on each mob will be less than Threat(heal)/5. Current speculation is Threat(heal)/(num of mobs *2) The implication here is simple: in a 5-man party or 10-man raid, let the tank charge in. The tank then must throw Demoralizing Shout (to get some threat on all mobs) and then start sundering/revenging/whatever. Otherwise, with 0 threat on some mobs, the first heal will cause those mobs to attack the healer. Implications * Prior to the Burning Crusade, it was wise to let the tank pull, or be the first to gain aggro after a Hunter has pulled and feigned death. Due to the odd way Taunt aggro worked prior to BC, this would cause the tank's taunts to always return aggro to him. As of BC, however, Taunt always gives the taunting character aggro, so this is no longer an issue. * Level 70 hunters now have Misdirection. If the hunter is pulling, he should apply Misdirection to the tank before he pulls, so that the mobs will attack the tank instead of the hunter. * Two or more tanks taunting targets from each other (and generating threat in various ways between the cooldowns) are great for generating immense amounts of hate very fast - since they always have each other as "top reference" in the hate list. * Because characters standing out of melee range will not draw aggro until they exceed the threat level of the mob's current target by 30%, it's important that the tank keep the mobs well away from the casters. If a caster does draw aggro and you taunt it off him, make sure you also move it away. New Data in The Burning Crusade Beta This part is tested by players of EU. Note, it is data on beta servers, so, the final number might be changed in released version. The Threat values listed in the above table do not include the Threat caused by damage from the maneuver. References * The Venture Co}} * Kenco . ''Some Threat Values and Formulas''. * Oohla (Frostmane/EU). ''Actual threat per rage and threat per sec''. Category:Formulas and Game Mechanics